What wind companies say is not the gospel truth
In the Feb. 5 Lee County Zoning Board of Appeals meeting (the minutes are available to the public online at www.county oflee.org, on page 11.), Mr. Ortgiesen (a private citizen) voiced his concern about the efficiency of wind energy versus nuclear power. Mr. Pedroni of FPL Energy Wind Illinois states “the energy produced at the proposed Lee-DeKalb wind energy center (226 megawatts) will be equivalent to more than one-third of the energy produced by one of the petitioner’s nuclear plants.”
This is absolutely not true. The facility at Byron (www.exeloncorp.com) is fairly typical of nuclear plants in Illinois with an average output of 2,300 megawatts. This 226-megawatt wind farm will actually only average about 45-55 megawatts. This is about 2-3 percent of Byron’s output, not the “more than one third” that Mr. Pedroni claims.
A wind turbine’s power output is not proportional to the wind speed that powers it. A typical wind turbine’s maximum power rating is produced at a wind speed of 25-28 mph. The average wind speed of the proposed wind farms in this area is 12 mph. (www.awea.org). At this wind speed, the wind farm will only produce about 20-25 percent of that maximum power rating. A typical wind turbine power curve graph is available at www.gepower.com. As you can see, it would take about 2,000 wind turbines to equal the “more than one-third of a nuclear plant’s output,” not the 150 as Mr. Pedroni claims. I am not advocating nuclear power, I am using it as a comparison because that’s what was brought up at the zoning meeting. I am making two points here.
These wind farms do not produce as much power as the public is led to believe. At an average wind speed of under 20 mph, wind turbines are grossly inefficient. These wind farms are much better suited to areas with a much higher average wind speed than here in northern Illinois, and I think we are much better served to gain this 2 percent by electric conservation.
And secondly, apparently whatever these wind company’s say is taken as the gospel truth without challenge. Why?
Neil Miller
Ashton
10 March 2009
